Shopping Guides

[gZimmiZ]

Would someone be willing to recommend a shopping guide? I think having one would make my trips to the grocery a bit easier and I am wondering if I should pass one on the food service department at my student's college. Any recommendations on other pamphlets I should pass on to the college?

[angel-jd1]

I personally like the CSA product guide. It is updated yearly (october usually). It has lots of great information. I would recommend it for EVERY newbie to the gluten free diet. It is a total life-saver!!

You can get it online: Open Original Shared Link it costs about 20$.

As far as the college thing goes. I would recommend sitting down with the food services director, and the school dietician to set up meals for your kiddo.

-Jessica

[crc0622]

This link is to the best list I have found. I still contact most manufacturers directly by e-mail if I'm not absolutely sure. Most are great to respond right away. I understand that the CSA list is somewhat outdated. I started off using it, but this one seems to be more user-friendly:

Open Original Shared Link

If this link doesn't work for some reason, you can go here:

Open Original Shared Link

and scroll down to the gluten-free Products List link.

Hope this helps.

[lovegrov]

Anybody who uses a shopping guide needs to remember that every guide is potentially outdated as soon as it's printed. You can probably find guides that say Corn Pops is gluten-free even though they've added wheat now. The CSA guide that's available right now has information that's a year or more old.

Your best bet is to learn what companies clearly list gluten or wheat and call companies about specific items.

richard

[celiacfreeman]

clan thompson has some great electronic options and a pocket guide list of gluten-free food.

check the net

[celiac3270]

Celiacfreeman, I agree that Clan Thompson lists are great........crc0622, thanks for that list from Delphi.......also informative.......finally, I second what Richard said that you can't trust these lists......I do like them, though, cause they give you lists of products that might be gluten-free along with their phone numbers...............that makes it very easy to sit down and call up many products regardless of whether you already have them in the house or not.............for that they are helpful, though I wouldn't take them shopping.

[debmidge]

The best thing about having a concise, easy to carry paper guide (not electronic) is that you can take it to the supermarket or health food store with you.

The CSA could improve it's book by making it into a a bound copy. The note book idea is good, but only if they sent you updated pages during the year, but they don't. So why shouldn't they just make it into an oversized paper back book?

[gZimmiZ]

Thanks everyone! Shopping guides are just that, a guide, I will keep that in mind

when using them. I will investigate the shopping guides you recommended. Am getting pretty good at remembering brands and items. But I still need some help.

College is going pretty good for my daughter. The cafeteria cooks for her and usually knows what is safe and tells her as she comes in, I told you it was a small university! She says it would be easier to just live at home because I decided to make our kitchen gluten free, she can find food and not think about it cause she knows its safe. Thanks all!

[burdee]

I agree that the CSA Product listing guide is rather bulky and heavy to cart to the grocery store. However, I like its 3-ring binder format. Whenever I receive email info from a food manufacturer about their product's ingredients, I print out that info and add it to my CSA binder. Nevertheless, I prefer the GFCFDiet website's smaller product guide for shopping trips. It doesn't list as many gluten-free foods, but since I must also avoid dairy, I need the gluten-free/cf listings. Clan Thompson's pocket guide is handy, but features mainly East Coast retailers and brand names. That's not so helpful for us on the West Coast.

BURDEE

[debmidge]

Maybe for the benefit of celiacs, all of these guides should merge under one central office. Then a separate guide could be printed for each area of the country (dividing the country into 4 areas: NW, SW, then NE, SE - the dividing line would be the middle of the country). The info on foods/products that are sold country wide would remain the same in each guide, just the info for each region would change.

For example, the CSA guide states what's in Safeway Supermarkets and Hy-Vee but there are none in my state (to my knowledge). We have Shop Rite, Foodtown and A & P. The CSA doesn't include these supermarkets. We have an Albertson's/Acme but it's so tiny that we only go there when we need a basic, like milk, eggs, soda or a grocery item. They are so small that they can't stock everything the CSA's book says is gluten free.

[Jamesmommy]

I know nothing about this disease yet and I am so glad you all are on here talking about EVERYTHING!!

I am learning alot as I read through this.I never knew Guides were available,didnt know I could call and get the list of ingredients from a manufacturer.

My son hasnt been diagnosed as of yet but I am pretty sure this is what it is,so I just wanted to Thank all of you for all the valuable information..

Jamesmommy

[hthorvald]

I downloaded the Clan Thompson electronic list to my PC and to my Palm Pilot. The PC format has an easy to prepare shopping list feature that you can print out when finished and take to the store. The database on the Palm is a great back up to check out the impulse buys or to simply verify a purchase.

They update these lists quarterly, so they are information is pretty up to date. And, they provide you with the name and contact information of the manufacturer, along with the date they verified gluten-free or not, so you can call them yourself if need be.

But, I always read labels because you never know if/when ingredients have been changed.

Good look.

H.